FKA Twigs released a surprise EP today titled M3LL155X. This was a pleasant surprise on an uneventful Thursday. She’s so unapologetically herself and is able to express that so effortlessly through her work. I’m always excited to hear new music from her because she never disappoints.You can purchase her the EP here. Hopefully we can get this baby up on the site soon *hints to Conroy*

If you have some spare time on your hands, check out the video she released with the EP:

Of course the video nothing short of amazing and weird but what else do you expect from this young talent. I absolutely love the fearless creativity exhibited in this video. This video has everything I need. It’s visually appealing, has an artistic flare, layers of symbolism, and choreographed voguing.

Yesterday, before a secret show in Philadelphia, Janelle Monae helped lead a Black Lives Matter protest alongside her Wondaland Records crew.

She spoke about the devastation our community has faced by police brutality as she addressed a crowd of over 150 protestors:

“They say a question lives forever, until it gets the answer it deserves. Won’t you say their names? Can we say their names right now? Can we speak their names, as long as we have breath in our bodies?”

Monae and Wondaland artist, Jidenna, who recently performed in Rochester, began to chant the names of Black men and women that have lost their lives at the hands of the police. The crowd broke out into chant repeating names such as Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, Eric Gardner, Aiyana Jones, Sean Bell, and more. Everyone then began to march through the streets of North Philadelphia concluding the march at Temple University’s main campus. See pictured below from Jidenna’s DJ, NanaKwabena’s instagram:

Today Monae released an updated version of ‘Hell You Talmbout,’ which was originally released on her sophomore studio album ‘Electric Lady’ as a bonus track. You can hear the updated track below:

This Saturday, August 15, WDKX and the Conkey Cruisers will be riding their bikes and tricycles from the station to the Clarissa Street Reunion parade and back!

If you do not own a tricycle, the Conkey Cruisers will be delivering some to the station Saturday morning. We will depart WDKX at 10:15am heading West on Main Street. We will turn left on Ford and Left on Samuel McCrea Way to line up for the parade, which starts at 11:00am. The station is 2 miles from Clarissa Street.

Everyone riding a trike will need to sign a release of liability for Conkey Cruisers and WDKX. Forms will be available at the station. We will depart Clarissa Street at 12:30pm heading back to WDKX.

The Rochester Razorsharks New Head Basketball Coach Chris Daleo, made his 1st Stop in Rochester to the WDKX Radio Station to speak with Wake-Up Club Host & Razorsharks TV/Internet Play-By-Play Broadcaster Tariq Spence. Find out more about Coach Daleo.

Like any style of music, hip hop has roots in other forms, and its evolution was shaped by many different artists, but there’s a case to be made that it came to life precisely on this day in 1973, at a birthday party in the recreation room of an apartment building in the west Bronx, New York City. The location of that birthplace was 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, and the man who presided over that historic party was the birthday girl’s brother, Clive Campbell—better known to history as DJ Kool Herc, founding father of hip hop.

Born and raised to the age of 10 in Kingston, Jamaica, DJ Kool Herc began spinning records at parties and between sets his father’s band played while he was a teenager in the Bronx in the early 1970s. Herc often emulated the style of Jamaican “selectors” (DJs) by “toasting” (i.e., talking) over the records he spun, but his historical significance has nothing to do with rapping. Kool Herc’s contribution to hip hop was even more fundamental.

DJ Kool Herc’s signature innovation came from observing how the crowds would react to different parts of whatever record he happened to be playing: “I was noticing quotecorner.com/finasteride.html people used to wait for particular parts of the record to dance, maybe [to] do their specialty move.” Those moments tended to occur at the drum breaks—the moments in a record when the vocals and other instruments would drop out completely for a measure or two of pure rhythm. What Kool Herc decided to do was to use the two turntables in a typical DJ setup not as a way to make a smooth transition between two records, but as a way to switch back and forth repeatedly between two copies of the same record, extending the short drum break that the crowd most wanted to hear. He called his trick the Merry Go-Round. Today, it is known as the “break beat.”

By the summer of 1973, DJ Kool Herc had been using and refining his break-beat style for the better part of a year. His sister’s party on August 11, however, put him before his biggest crowd ever and with the most powerful sound system he’d ever worked. It was the success of that party that would begin a grassroots musical revolution, fully six years before the term “hip hop” even entered the popular vocabulary.

With the advent of social media the amount of negativity is overwhelming so seeing a happy comment about a school I felt compelled to post this:

“… As a single/divorced parent of four children being able to afford a Free quality high school education for my children is extremely important. Both myself and my son, Omar, looked at all public and private high schools and nothing compared to the right match for his learning style. Vertus has provided leadership skills, a brotherhood culture and a pathway for educational success beyond the classroom and high school. Omar is looking forward to a Division one collegiate education.”